Take an Inventory

“…let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief]…” Hebrews 12:1-2

 In the time this was written it was understood that athletes trained hard and ran naked…well, almost. When it came time to run they stripped down to only a loin cloth so that nothing could weigh them down and hold them back from reaching their fullest potential and gaining the prize set be for them.

I want to encourage you to take time over the next few days to take an inventory of your life - the commitments you’ve taken on, the activities that take up your time. How is your focus and your drive? Get with God and ask Him what His main goals for you are. I can promise you this…it will have something to do with loving others and expanding His kingdom, and if it expands your wallet that will merely be a blessed byproduct. Know this – we are all called to different things. Just because “Sister-Does-It-All,” who has her hand in everything and still has time to look great and have the perfect family, gives you an odd look when you feel you can’t commit to the new project or program at church, does not mean you have to feel guilty. What you give your time to is between you and God.  He has a specific, individual plan for each of us. And he is willing to show you what that is for your life. Psalm 25:12-13 says,

“Who is the man who reverently fears and worships the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way that he should choose. He himself shall dwell at ease, and his offspring shall inherit the land.”

This is a promise. Take God at His Word and spend some one-on-one time with your Lord letting Him lead you into the best He has for you. Burnout, stress, and anxiety are not the things He has for you.

“You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.” Isaiah 26:3

When you are operating in His design for your life, there will be peace, perfect peace, and a confidence that can only come from walking with Him.

So I am writing all of this now because these are the things the Lord and I are working through at this moment. I’m dragging you along and hoping it will minister to you as well. J Remember the two most important things: Love God and love others.

^“And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. These two commandments sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets” Matt. 22:37-40)

This is the place to start. And when you are loving God with all your heart, He will place His desires for you in your heart and cause you to long for them. (Psalms 37:4-5) Then your “work” will be a joy and the most natural thing in the world.

Is there anything you need to cast off? Too many commitments that were not God-ordained for you? Some hidden sin you have not yet fessed up to? Only you and God can decide that. And you can only work through it by spending alone time with Him.

“Whatever may be your task, work at it heartily (from the soul), as [something done] for the Lord and not for men,” Col. 3:23